"Yes, yes! I am sure it wasn't you. At such a time as this I am sure, quite sure, you could not tell me what was not true. I do believe you."
"I am speaking the truth to you. I say I didn't do it, and I don't know who did. I could not bear to be suspected by them—and they dismissed me. So we came here. Pattie doesn't know. I don't want her to know—unless my name is cleared some day, and everything comes out. Only, you will remember that it was not I. And Pattie will be alone in the world."
"No, not alone. She can never be alone while God is with her. He is with you too—at hand to help you."
Dale smiled dimly.
"If He wasn't—I should be in a bad way now," he panted. His breath came very painfully.
"Would you like to see the clergyman?"
"He has been. I should like to see him again. Soon—if possible."
Dale closed his eyes. Cragg wondered whether he would live until the Vicar could come. He doubted it. He would have liked to kneel down by the sick-bed and to offer up a few words of prayer, but shyness withheld him. He muttered only a subdued, "God bless you, poor fellow!" and then without another word he cautiously tip-toed from the room. Outside the door the nurse stood waiting.
"I'll ask the Vicar to call. He says he would like to see him at once, if I can get him. He looks bad," observed Cragg.
"He won't be here much longer. But he's ready to go," the nurse said confidently. "To hear him praying in the night—! I'm sure I wish everybody else was as ready as Mr. Dale is to go."